How We Grow Together:
Our Vision

What We've Accomplished:
Over the past three years, we have pushed the district to strengthen the academic foundation for every student while providing better pathways for students ready to go further. We oversaw major changes to K–8 mathematics, including clearer pathways and greater family transparency and choice; strengthened early literacy and phonics in the primary grades; and supported districtwide implementation of a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS, also known as New Jersey Tiered System of Supports, or NJTSS), so students can be identified earlier and receive the right level of support—whether they need intervention, enrichment, or other supports to help them thrive.

We have invested in better systems for collecting and understanding student data across schools and grades, giving the district a clearer picture of where students are succeeding and where additional attention is needed. At Columbia, the Freshman Academy has created a more intentional transition to high school, with greater attention to attendance, academic progress, belonging, and early intervention. Together, these changes are replacing fragmented approaches with stronger academic systems from the earliest grades through high school.

The most recent state testing gives us reasons for confidence and a clear agenda for continued growth. We saw year-over-year gains across multiple grades and subjects, alongside areas of strong performance throughout the district. At the same time, the results remain uneven, and significant achievement gaps—particularly for Black students—make clear that stronger systems have not yet translated into equally strong outcomes for every student.

Where We Go Next:
The next phase must be about turning stronger systems into stronger student outcomes. We need to know not simply whether new curricula, interventions, and programs have been implemented, but whether they are working—identifying what is succeeding, where students still need more, and where we need to change course.

That means continuing to strengthen early literacy and mathematics, making MTSS/NJTSS a consistent and effective practice in every school, and directing resources and interventions toward areas where students are not yet achieving at the levels we expect. It also means being honest that racial achievement gaps remain an unfinished part of our equity work, particularly for Black students. We have better tools to understand those gaps than we did three years ago; the challenge now is to use them to produce better results.

At the same time, equity cannot mean lowering ceilings. Equity and excellence go hand in hand: removing barriers while preserving opportunity for every student to excel. Students who are already meeting expectations need room to grow, with rigorous and accessible pathways to advanced coursework. The Rutgers Equity Audit identified longstanding disparities in how Black and Latino students moved through advanced academic pathways. We have begun changing the systems that contribute to those differences, including middle-school math placement and supports, but this remains work in progress.

At the middle and high school levels, we want to continue building clearer pathways connecting students' interests and strengths to what comes next. That includes continuing to  improve the transition into Columbia, with more intentional use of the Freshman Academy to build on its early success in supporting attendance, academic progress, and belonging. As well as, expanding access to advanced and college-level coursework with appropriate supports, and developing stronger career and technical education, work-based learning, fine and performing arts, and other postsecondary pathways.

Academic excellence should mean both high expectations and meaningful opportunity: every student receiving the support necessary to succeed, every student having room to grow, and every graduate leaving SOMSD genuinely prepared for college, career, and adult life.

What We've Accomplished:
We made special education a central focus of Board oversight, moving it from an ad hoc to a standing committee and creating regular opportunities for partnership with our district’s Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC). We have ensured the district promptly addressed the findings of the independent Special Education Audit and federal corrective action plan, moving from identifying problems toward systemically addressing them and strengthening accountability for timelines, Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), and service delivery.

We supported targeted investments in capacity, including additional Child Study Team support, increased behavioral services, Orton-Gillingham and Collaborative Problem Solving training, stronger in-district programs, expanded Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Emotional Regulation Impairment (ERI) programming, and development of an 18–21 transition program. We also worked to break down silos between Special Services and Curriculum & Instruction so that inclusion and strong instruction for students with disabilities become districtwide responsibilities, rather than the work of one department. By 2026, the Special Services and Curriculum and Instruction departments were engaged in regular joint planning, instructional walkthroughs, and continued development of evidence-based reading practices.

We have strengthened Section 504 procedures, sought more direct family feedback, and increased oversight of paraprofessional assignments, In-Class Resource/Support (ICRS) instruction, out-of-district placements, and other major areas of special education.

This September also reminded us that progress can be fragile. The transition to a new paraprofessional vendor did not begin as it needed to: the district opened school short of full paraprofessional coverage and had to use temporary agency staff and substitutes while continuing recruitment. District and Board leadership have been closely engaged in addressing that shortage, but the disruption and uncertainty experienced by students, families, staff, and paraprofessionals are real and should inform what we do next.

Where We Go Next:
Compliance must be the floor, not the goal. Our focus is making sure families experience a special-education system that is responsive, consistent, collaborative, and centered on excellent instruction.

Our immediate work includes stabilizing paraprofessional staffing, including ongoing consideration of bringing key paraprofessional positions in-house, improving communication with affected families, holding vendors accountable to their obligations, and examining what this transition teaches us about the long-term sustainability of our staffing model. Cost matters, but the true cost of a service has to include reliability, continuity, quality, and the impact on students—not simply the price of a contract. We also need to continue reducing Child Study Team (CST) caseload pressures and delays, strengthening case management, and ensuring accommodations, modifications, and IEP services are delivered consistently across schools and classrooms.

And we need to continue building a stronger continuum of services within SOMSD. Students should be educated alongside their peers in their community whenever we can appropriately meet their needs, with high quality inclusive programs, specialized classrooms, behavioral supports, transition services, evidence-based instruction, and well-trained paraprofessionals.

Finally, we need to continue examining longstanding disparities in intervention, referral, and identification. The Rutgers Equity audit identified historical overrepresentation of Black students in special education and intervention processes. Stronger early intervention should help us distinguish between a student who needs better or different instruction and a student who has a disability requiring special education—while making sure students who do have disabilities are identified promptly and appropriately.

Most importantly, we want the conversation about special education to continue moving beyond processes and paperwork toward what ultimately matters: whether students with disabilities are learning, growing, belonging, and leaving our schools prepared for what comes next.

What We've Accomplished:
We have worked to make the student experience itself a focus of Board oversight alongside academics. We created the Student and Family Affairs Committee to provide sustained attention to attendance, discipline, mental health, safety, family engagement, athletics, arts, and other issues that directly affect students. We have also incorporated student representatives into relevant Board committee meetings, creating more direct opportunities for students to share their experiences and perspectives as the Board considers policy and district priorities.

We supported stronger restrictions on cell phones, including grant-supported use of Yondr pouches at Columbia, while remaining attentive to the individualized access, learning, health, and communication needs of students. We also began a broader conversation about intentional use of Chromebooks and screen time throughout the district.

The Freshman Academy brought a new focus to belonging, attendance, engagement, and early support during the critical transition to high school. Its first full year showed encouraging results, including a significant reduction in fights, suspensions, and bullying incidents, in chronic absenteeism, and failing grades.

Where We Go Next:
We want to measure success not only by test scores, but by whether students want to be in school, feel that they belong, and have meaningful opportunities to participate.

Chronic absenteeism, student mental health, school climate, behavioral supports, and consistent approaches to discipline and safety all remain growth areas. Our goal should not simply be improving a districtwide number, but understanding which students are still becoming disconnected from school and intervening before that disconnection becomes entrenched.

We must also continue improving how we respond to bullying, harassment, hate speech, graffiti, and other bias-based conduct—including behavior targeting students because of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other aspects of identity. Students should feel safe reporting concerns and confident that adults will respond.

LGBTQIA+ students deserve explicit attention in that work. The Board has reaffirmed its commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusion and, in 2026, specifically recognized the need to protect and support transgender and gender-nonconforming students in the face of bullying and harassment. The next phase is making sure those commitments are experienced consistently in our schools through effective responses to bias, knowledgeable staff, inclusive curriculum and libraries, student supports, and a culture of belonging. 

Beyond the classroom, every student should have opportunities to find a place in school through athletics, music, theater, visual arts, clubs, leadership, service, and other activities. We want to understand where participation remains uneven, address unnecessary barriers, and make the full student experience a deliberate part of how we evaluate our schools—not an extracurricular afterthought.

What We've Accomplished:
Over the past three years, under our oversight, the district has taken concrete steps to advance academic achievement and equity. The district has implemented the Rutgers recommendations through new math-access and acceleration pathways, a rebuilt MTSS/I&RS intervention system, equity-focused data analysis and professional development, workforce-diversity and advanced-course initiatives, expanded student supports, and continued refinement of the III using demographic, transportation, and family-experience data. This work brought to a close the Black Parents Workshop court-monitoring process, but we are committed to ensuring the district nonetheless continues to implement the Rutgers Equity Audit recommendations.

Intentional integration is one of our core principles and we have ensured that the district has maintained its focus on this goal, while making thoughtful, practical adjustments to address implementation challenges for students and families. . Over the past three years, The transition from lottery-based to proximity-based III placements increased the assignment of students to their closest school, and a liberalized transfer policy has made it easier for families to secure a school assignment that better meets their needs, while maintaining the goals of the initiative. We have also moved the district to formally document its current III process in a regulation to achieve the goal of transparency. The board has also continued examining transportation, student experience, changing demographics, program placement, and disproportionate burdens created by the assignment system.

Where We Go Next:
Having finally achieved implementation of the III throughout all grades of our elementary schools, we have an opportunity to evaluate its impact and outcomes rather than treating implementation itself as the finish line.

We support consideration of improvements to the III methodology that could better support student experience, academic outcomes, transportation, and neighborhood connections, so long as they do not undermine the important objectives and achievements of the initiative.

Our method of equitably assigning students to schools should be sustainable, understandable to families, and designed to avoid placing disproportionate burdens on particular students or neighborhoods. That means being both principled and pragmatic: protecting the core goal of integration while engaging in continuous review of the evidence and making adjustments when we have an opportunity to improve the model. Transportation and distance are problems to solve—not reasons to abandon the broader goal of integration.

Educational equity means much more than similar demographics between schools, however. Recent achievement data reinforce that our work inside schools remains unfinished. Black student achievement, access to the highest levels of advanced coursework, equitable discipline, special-education identification, and participation in extracurricular opportunities all deserve continued attention. The goal is not to characterize students by deficits, but to identify where our systems are not yet producing the outcomes we want and improve them.

Our goal is not simply diverse school buildings that mirror our community, but schools in which students from every background have meaningful access to opportunity, learn from one another, and feel that they belong.

What We've Accomplished:
Under our oversight, the district substantially expanded opportunities for the community to participate in its work. The Superintendent established the Budget Advisory Committee, Transportation Advisory Committee, Children's Cabinet, and AI Committee, while the Board created the Student and Family Affairs Committee to focus Board attention on school climate and culture, student wellness and life outside the classroom, and family engagement.

We have also supported greater and more thoughtful use of surveys and structured family engagement, including the Special Education Family Experience Survey, the III Experience Survey, school climate surveys, student focus groups, and a more meaningful working relationship with SEPAC.

Where We Go Next:
Creating opportunities for input is only the beginning. The next step is to make engagement earlier, more representative, and more consequential—so families understand when and how they can influence decisions and can see what changed as a result.

The difficult paraprofessional transition this summer and fall reinforces that point. Decisions that substantially affect students and families—particularly students who depend on individualized supports—need meaningful stakeholder engagement early enough to shape implementation, not simply communication after decisions have been made. Parents and SEPAC have provided candid and useful feedback during the current staffing challenges, and that partnership should inform how we approach major changes in the future.

When the district ultimately makes a different choice than some community members recommended, it should clearly communicate what it heard, what it considered, what it decided, and why.

We also want to improve the everyday relationship between schools and families. Families should know where to go with a question or problem, receive a timely response, and have confidence that concerns will reach the right person without requiring persistent escalation. Access to good service should not depend on how much institutional knowledge a family has or whom they know.

What We've Accomplished:
Under our oversight, the district has developed balanced budgets while navigating significant financial pressure from rising costs, limitations on state aid, declining reserves, and already-high property taxes. We have not shied away from making difficult financial decisions necessary to spend within our means, even when those decisions were unpopular. At the same time, we have worked to protect academic instruction and student services and expand them where the need was greatest.

We have brought greater scrutiny and transparency to district finances through earlier budget planning, multiyear forecasting, closer examination of major cost drivers, and creation of the Budget Advisory Committee. We have confronted declining reserves and reliance on budget freezes rather than pretending those practices are sustainable.

We have also intensified examination of transportation, health benefits, special education, staffing, contracted services, and other areas where structural changes can produce meaningful savings.

This school year has given us a particularly clear reminder that operational efficiency is meaningful only if the operation actually works. The opening weeks included several poorly performing bus routes with major delays, no-shows, and students missed or taken to incorrect stops. Most routes operated without major incident, but we cannot call a transportation system successful until all of our routes are functioning reliably. Under our close and sustained oversight, district leadership has made route changes, added buses, leveraged and worked to expand GPS data, and tightened communication protocols, but transportation remains an area requiring sustained attention.

Where We Go Next:
Our central financial challenge is to build a district that can sustain excellent programs without repeatedly relying on reserves, emergency freezes, or tax increases that outpace what the community can reasonably absorb.

That requires a genuine multiyear financial plan, rebuilding appropriate reserves, better forecasting, and earlier decisions about spending rather than balancing the budget through late-year corrections.

We also need to continue taking a thoughtful, long-term approach to the district’s major structural costs, including transportation, health benefits, staffing, contracted services, and energy. At the same time, we must ensure that decisions about special education and other essential student services are guided first by student need and service quality, while identifying opportunities to build sustainable, cost-effective capacity within the district. 

Transportation belongs squarely within that work. The district has changed school schedules, redesigned tiers, adjusted routes, and looked for ways to reduce vendor dependence, but this year's start demonstrates that there is still work to do on routing, vendor management, communications, contingency planning, and accountability. Operational savings that create repeated service failures are not sustainable savings. 

More broadly, our use of contracted services has sometimes reduced the apparent cost of a service while creating unpredictability or requiring additional resources to solve problems. We intend to continue evaluating where outside vendors make sense, where greater district control could produce better service, and where investments up front can avoid larger costs later.

Finally, we should increasingly ask not only what we spend, but what we are getting for that investment. The goal is not simply a balanced spreadsheet. It is a financially sustainable district that reliably delivers for students.

What We've Accomplished:
We began shifting facilities planning from a reactive approach to a long-term strategic framework. We oversaw completion of the major 2019 capital program, which delivered more than 60 permanent classrooms and removed all 16 portable classrooms, while expanding capacity, improving accessibility, and addressing urgent building needs across the district.

At the same time, we have continued addressing urgent needs as they arise while developing the next Long Range Facilities Plan (LRFP) and identifying the district's next generation of capital projects. The district's current LRFP is deliberately a planning document rather than a spending authorization, allowing needs to be identified, prioritized, and positioned for potential state support before individual projects move forward. 

Where We Go Next:
We continue to pay the price for decades of deferred maintenance, and our physical plant is not in acceptable condition. Our buildings require a realistic multiyear capital strategy that prioritizes the most important operational, safety, accessibility, instructional, and infrastructure needs and clearly explains how they will be financed.

The next phase will involve difficult choices. The continuing Ritzer Field project and the prospect of substantial future capital requests have already generated legitimate questions from our municipal partners about cost, sequencing, debt, and the cumulative impact on taxpayers. Those questions are not going away, and they deserve serious answers.

We do not think the answer is to return to decades of deferring maintenance until roofs, mechanical systems, auditoriums, fields, and other facilities fail. Nor should available debt capacity be treated as a blank check. We need to prioritize and phase projects, prioritize urgent infrastructure and high-value, long-term improvements, maximize state aid and other outside funding, understand lifecycle costs, and be clear with the community and our municipal partners about the tradeoffs involved.

That planning should address aging mechanical systems, roofs and building envelopes, accessibility, classrooms and specialized instructional spaces, athletics and recreation, and the spaces used for music, theater, and the arts. It should incorporate energy efficiency and sustainability where those investments can reduce long-term operating costs.

Especially as existing debt is retired, we have an opportunity to make thoughtful decisions about what comes next. Thoughtful capital planning means investing in our schools before problems become emergencies while making sure major investments are sustainable and deliver meaningful value for students and the community.

Item descriptionWhat We've Accomplished:
We have worked to restore stable, professional governance and leadership to the district.

We came onto a Board that had been enmeshed in conflict and discord, and we promised to bring civility and professionalism to the BOE. We are proud that, through intentional and collaborative work alongside our colleagues, the Board now operates with greater respect and cooperation in its operations and deliberations.

We served through the hiring of a new Superintendent and have seen greater stability in senior leadership. We worked with NJSBA, the district administration and the community to develop a new strategic planning to give the district clearer long-term direction. We have kept sustained attention on policies and regulations, expanded committee oversight, streamlined Board agendas, and created more transparent financial and operational reporting.

We also worked with our colleagues to restore the Board's lapsed New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) certification, a multiyear effort finally completed this year. We both also earned NJSBA’s first-term boardsmanship certification, completing additional training in school governance and the responsibilities of effective board service. We believe effective governance requires continual learning and preparation, and we have made that commitment part of our service. 

Where We Go Next:
Strong governance is not an end in itself; its value is whether it produces a district that sets clear goals, executes them effectively, measures results, and changes course when something is not working.

This September is a useful reminder of what that means. Effective oversight does not mean pretending that every rollout went well because the underlying policy goal was sound. It means being willing to acknowledge problems—in paraprofessional staffing, transportation, or anywhere else—insist that they be corrected, understand why they happened, and make sure the lessons become part of how the district operates going forward. At the same time, Board members must maintain the line between strong oversight and attempting to run daily district operations themselves.

As members of the Executive Committee, we have put that approach into practice, engaging in close and sustained oversight of district leadership as issues emerged between board meetings, pressing for clear answers and follow-through, while maintaining the Board’s role as an oversight body rather than attempting to manage day-to-day operations. 

The next step is to embed those practices deeply enough that they do not depend on particular personalities or Board majorities. That means maintaining clear boundaries between Board oversight and administration, continuing policy and regulation modernization, setting measurable goals, and holding leadership accountable for results.

Our strategic plan should become the organizing framework for that work. Board meetings, committee oversight, budgets, and Superintendent evaluation should increasingly connect back to a small number of publicly understood goals and outcomes, with student achievement at the center of every decision we make.

Our aim is a district in which families can see not only what the Board and administration intend to accomplish, but what was promised, what was delivered, what we learned, and what happens next.